Posted on 11/19/2020 3:44:39 PM PST by Kaslin
I’ve never set foot on my elite women’s college campus, but that didn’t save me from my enraged peers when I announced, “If you support Trump, you are my friend. If you support Biden, you are my friend. If you feel the need to degrade those who feel differently from you...maybe we aren’t friends.”
That’s all I said on my Instagram story, yet execrable messages began trickling into my direct messages from my peers. I was told that I was a part of the problem, and that nobody wanted to be friends with me. I was accused of believing that black people are inferior, and I hate the LGBT community. I was told “don’t expect me to be docile to Trump supporters,” and to “f**** outta here.” Never before had comments made me feel so sick to my stomach, and it was all because I suggested that I treat everyone with respect.
I decided to respond by asking them to clarify their thoughts; I offered my perspectives on freedom of speech and emphasized people’s worth beyond their politics. I cited thinkers like Voltaire, and objected to faux history, but it was no use. They didn’t want dialogue; they wanted a sacrificial lamb.
My peers broadcasted vile public statements about me, and Trump supporters in general, calling us every profanity in the dictionary. I was reported to a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Instagram account, run by alumni from my school with thousands of followers meant for community members to call out racism. The way the page works is community members fill out a form, and it’s automatically posted. This allows people to vent their concerns anonymously and without accountability. That evening, there was a post about me.
The post emphasized that I was white, accused me of being “insensitive,” willing to befriend white supremacists, and gaslighting, and told me to check “my privilege” and that there was something wrong with me because I follow and admire political commentator Ben Shapiro.
The post garnered much support, but the worst part was below the post, where there were thirty comments. They mocked my appearance and conservative identity and said that I didn’t belong at Mount Holyoke and should leave. They were ashamed to share the same campus with me, and that I was lucky that I wasn’t on campus. My views were “disgusting” and that I was “f***ing humiliating.” I needed to “buck the f*** up,” and called a racist, sexist, white supremacist, and other derogatory names. People who were former friends now voiced support of the atrocious comments. Once anonymous, my identity went public, which then escalated the harassment and even led to threats.
Two days later, the incendiaries moved on. However, I couldn’t as easily. People were terrified of being my friend or associated with me. Many had unfollowed or blocked me. People who I called my friends no longer wanted to be my friend. I’ve talked to the administration about what happened to me, and although they had sympathized with my situation, they didn’t do a thing about it. Because of the pandemic, I am a freshman who has never been to campus. However, I am somehow the most hated individual on campus- all because I expressed openness to bipartisan respect.
In the midst of the aftermath, a silver lining appeared: there were words of encouragement from alumni and a handful of students. Some told me they had respect for me for being open about my political affiliation in an intellectually terrorizing environment. Some reached out to see how I was doing, and that they were here for me. One student introduced herself saying, “I come in peace!” and she’s now one of my closest friends. I had hit rock bottom, but I wasn’t alone.
It’s disturbing to think that members of my generation believe that it’s “compassionate” to smear anyone who dares to refuse their narrative as “racist.” It’s concerning to think that the next generation of leaders who preach that they don’t tolerate hate are the same people who spew vitriol at their fellow students with dissenting political ideologies.
I attend college to prepare me for the real world, to expand my worldview. I attend a women’s college for an empowering experience. The real world isn’t an echo chamber, where those who dare to venture outside of the chamber are slaughtered, let alone in an institution whose telos is to question and challenge the root of the way its students see the world. And it’s certainly not empowering to get persecuted for a divergent thought in a community meant to welcome all women.
My experience is not unique on college campuses. There are plenty of angry progressive mobs on campuses across the country hunting for their next prey, ready to wreak havoc upon anyone who deviates from them. However, further normalizing this bigotry will only have a dire consequence on society: no longer are we attacked for disagreeing, but we are now threatened for not only agreeing to disagree respectively but suggesting we do so. This omen is why I plan to stand up against these bullies and will do so until it’s no longer dangerous to have variant political beliefs.
The universities have passed the point of no return. Burn them all down. Even STEM is no longer safe, it has been taken over by the Cult of Woke. We are already in the New Dark Ages (oops, silly me, that term is soooooo racist!).
We see things similarly. See my previous.
Yes, I agree with that.
“This will not end well.”
This will be the end of the American university. While we are sitting around analyzing microaggressions, the Chinese, Indians, and others will be studying serious subjects and eating our lunch. It will culminate with American students having to learn Chinese in order to study a serious profession, and that’s only if they would let us in at all. As our POTUS would say: Sad.
It isn’t enough to order the dissenter to remain silent in public. No, you must proudly proclaim your support for social justice or we will hurt you and ruin you. To be moderate, to be neutral, is to be equivalent to the evil ones ...
The social justice jihadis saying this then complain that everyone else is divisive. As if everyone agreeing with their violence fascism is good and right ...
I actually ran into this professionally. Had an interview scheduled for a contractor. Then the young woman posted after the election how she hates conservatives, if you’re a Trump supporter, I can’t work with you, unfriend me. I emailed her to inform her I was conservative, I’d reached across the aisle to consider working with her on a project ... but given her explicit hate for someone like me, the job interview is cancelled.
Communist groupthink thug cult
Colleges are populated by The Red Guard.
You ought to see the content of Chemical and Engineering News, the official journal of the American Chemical Society. It’s full of woke articles and editorials, support for BLM and the rest of the typical current hogwash. This magazine is supposed to be about the hard sciences, not the left-wing social sciences.
Why is this all coming to the fore now? It’s like someone has given the signal and it’s all being unleashed at once. Everyone is in on it and if you’re not your career and everything else about is in jeopardy.
Oh, I agree with that.
And, as you learn your clientele, you can leave the Libtards in the dark with their own sh*t.
bump
If that is the case, get ready for lots of Bhopals, Texas Cities, and Piper Alphas. A friend of mine has written a rather thick book on Bhopal, and another, a major authority on process safety with regards to safety instrumented systems (contributed a lot to ISA 84 and IEC61511) has lectured on that and other major disasters in the chemical and refining industry. This is NOT going to be good. If I get hit with the woke crap being more important than proper engineering (I work in the energy industry), I may as well walk off the job and toss my PE license in the trash. This will get dangerous. I can not afford the professional liability due to someone else’s political whim, since I am licensed I can be criminally liable!
Because they now have a platform where they can quickly mob up on anyone who indulges in "wrong think".
About ten years ago I was taking a required class on diversity (collage level) and the teacher proudly announced at the beginning of the first class that she knew all about how we suffered because she was a lesbian.
Being an older student (or as they put it "Non-traditional") I very politely asked if I could make a comment. The first was that she was judging us based solely on appearance and that was racist and second that I had no interest in what she did sexually and found it intrusive and distasteful that she would force her private behavior on the class as a whole.
The class went down hill from there.
Now days my comment would be tweeted and retweeted and people around the world would indulge in a two minute hate.
Omg. That’s horrible.
Too bad I didn’t keep the screed of anguish email the President of Mount Holyoke sent out to everyone after Trump won in 2016! It was even better than the reel of anguish from CNN, etc. Luckily, my 50th MHC reunion was cancelled bc of the virus, so I didn’t have to make nice with all the wacked out liberals in my class last May. My goal is to march at age 100 on my own power in the reunion parade and I’m going to wear my big Trump cowgirl hat! This presumes, of course, that Mount Holyoke College still exists in 30 years, a big IF in my book.
Why? Why did you feel it was necessary to issue the Instagram story? Do you know that you continue to exist even if you don't post every act and thought on Instagram?
As i’ve been saying for a while, bridges don’t stay up because of diversity, airplane don’t not fall out of the sky because you’re woke. And BTW, regarding the 737Max - Boeing has massive homage to diversity on their web site. Physics doesn’t care.
Too bad I didn’t keep the screed of anguish email the President of Mount Holyoke sent out to everyone after Trump won in 2016! It was even better than the reel of anguish from CNN, etc. Luckily, my 50th MHC reunion was cancelled bc of the virus, so I didn’t have to make nice with all the wacked out liberals in my class last May. My goal is to march at age 100 on my own power in the reunion parade and I’m going to wear my big Trump cowgirl hat! This presumes, of course, that Mount Holyoke College still exists in 30 years, a big IF in my book.
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